To understand the impact of lockdown on people in different countries, Reynah Gupta, a Grade 6 student of Greenwood High International School has launched a series on her YouTube channel, “Reynahs”, in which she interacts with seven families from seven countries on how they are surviving the lockdown and narrates their different experiences in managing their life. The families are from India, Dubai, UK, Nigeria, Singapore, USA and Australia. All the families whom Reynah approached are local families from respective countries.
Through her family’s contacts in these nations, 10 year old Reynah Gupta got the families to speak to her over a video interaction tool. Reynah’s YouTube channel is being appreciated for her effort to reach out to people in different parts of the world. In about 10 minutes of conversation, she asks how they’re all coping with the lockdown and found that their experiences varied. From family bonding time to struggling with essentials, and desperate attempts to get back their children from other places amongst others. For example, Reynah learnt that a Jordanian family in Dubai couldn’t get back their daughter after it was announced that people travelling to Jordan would be quarantined. In another experience, a Nigerian family had to survive on cereals for a long period of time soon after they returned from vacation and found that everything had changed.
The US family talked about their experience of running out of basics including toilet paper while the family in Australia missed their regular restaurant outing. Reynah Gupta learnt that learning cooking and experimenting with food is something universal that everyone did while utilising their time during lockdown. She gained lot of knowledge from the experiences of lockdown from these families.
An avid reader and has been posting book reviews on her channel, Reynah Gupta wished to do something different and after interacting with her parents, came up with the idea of an interview series on her YouTube channel. Her father Deepak Gupta was the key motivator for her to set up the channel and interact with families around the world.
Speaking on this initiative, Reynah said, “Recording this series has been an amazing experience for me. Interacting with people of different cultures faced with similar kind of challenges and learning their different ways of managing these situations helped me understand them better. I loved doing it and plan to come up with next series of interviews on relevant topic few months down the line. My series of Book Reviews on Famous Five series is also nearly ready and would be launched soon.”
Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High International School said: “Reynah’s quest to interact with people from other countries during this pandemic proves that age is no bar if we have the grit and determination. Reynah Gupta’s initiative is commendable and an apt example for others on how one can productively use this time of lockdown and contribute to creative activities.”
